Hmm, I look at the coins and other items I took from the dead stored in the room where I used to keep Eraina's group. I pick up a small iron coin, feeling its weight in my Avatar's palm. The currency of the kingdom is called Krowns, and these small iron coins are of the lowest value. I obtained twelve of them in total. Which is the equivalent of one large iron coin and two small ones.

I sigh at the annoyance of learning this era's currency. But it will be necessary in the future. It takes ten small coins to make a large coin of the same value, and ten large coins to make a small coin of the next value. They go from iron, to bronze, then silver, and finally, gold.

I shake my head as I do the math. That means a large gold coin is worth 10,000,000 small iron ones. At least, I think that math is right. According to Eraina, most folks would only see iron and bronze coins. If they were lucky, they may save up a large bronze coin or two for their retirement.

Silver coins are mostly used by wealthy merchants when dealing with bulk purchases, and gold ones tend to only be used between wealthy nobles and royalty. I place the coin back with the items I collected from the corpses. However, my thoughts are elsewhere.

A glance at my status screen on the interface tells me my reserves are almost full. If I'm right about my theory, that means I'm due to experience another growth. Hopefully, that will unlock some new interface options for me. I've had a bit of time to think about my existence now. As far as I can tell, roughly half of all mana I gain goes toward filling up my resources. And the mana I gained when Tharin died seems to be what was stored in his body.

I believe the same probably happened when the mercenaries died, but I was too preoccupied to notice at the time. Clearly, the fastest way to grow would be to kill more people. However, that's like harvesting all the crops from a field without planting new ones. Eventually, you'll run out of food.

Well, I guess I should do what I can to secure myself a little more. I use my senses to focus on the broken spawner. I think it's time to finally fix this thing. I need to add some variety to my guardians. With a wince, I spend the 50 mana it asks for to repair itself. A little timer appears on my interface, letting me know it'll only take a few minutes.

I guess it wasn't too badly damaged then if that's all it will take. All I can do is wait as the time ticks by. I'm beginning to realize life will be incredibly boring if this is all there is to it. I can only hope that my future growth spurts will allow me access to the town Nana and the others spoke of.

I frown as I think about that. Hmm, maybe I should put that to the test. After all, my only source of information was five prisoners. They may not know everything or their knowledge could be flawed. My footsteps echo through the hall as I head toward my boundary.

I can feel it. This is where my dungeon body ends. Eraina had said dungeons aren't capable of going beyond their territory, but I'm not too sure about that. I seem to remember walking under the star-filled sky before. Although, that could have been because my territory stretched outside before. If only my memories weren't so fuzzy.

I sigh as I tilt my head, staring at the boundary line. Nothing bad can happen from trying, right? I take a few steps and am surprised when the invisible wall of my territory gives way to me. Well, that confirms my earlier suspicion. I frown as I realize my Avatar's mana charge starts dropping at an increased pace.

I close my eyes as I try to sense any other changes. Hmm, it seems like I can't manipulate my dungeon body or create anything when my core is away from it. Also, it appears that my core is incapable of receiving the mana from my nodes. Well, that'll be a problem.

If I want to move around outside, my powers will be vastly limited and I'll be on a timeframe to get my Avatar back to recharge it. That's something I really can't afford to ignore if I go exploring. Still, it's better than being confined to my dungeon body.

Hmm, if the mana capacity of my core increases, I can always recharge my Avatar from it to keep it going longer outside my territory. But, for now, my mana capacity is painfully low. I sincerely doubt a full 100 points of mana could recharge much. Probably wouldn't even fill my Avatar halfway.

I hum to myself as I step back into my territory. I can't help but wonder if Eraina intentionally misled me, or if it was an honest mistake. However, I'm still not willing to push myself to check how far I can go outside of my boundaries until I have nothing left to do here.

Ding!

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Oh, the spawner is repaired. Seems like it's time to see what I can get from it. As I focus my attention on it, I understand that I can spend my mana for it to assemble Owl Golems. Well, I'm not sure what I'll do with those just yet. I should check the upgrade options first. If I can get those first it'll save me the mana cost and time to upgrade the units later.

Unit Designs:

- Satellite Feathers

- Reconnaissance Link

- Medium Mana Core

- Submit New Schematics

I can't help but feel a little happy about these upgrades as I receive the information about what each one does. Satellite Feathers add a ranged combat method to them. It seems each individual feather is enchanted to be remote-controlled by the owl. Allowing it to fire and retrieve them at will.

Reconnaissance Link allows me to see and hear through them when they're outside of my territory. That's pretty handy and even answers a few of my questions. If any of my golems leave my dungeon body, I won't be able to use them to see or anything else. I'll be able to send them orders, but they can't transmit anything back to me. This upgrade solves that problem.

As for the Medium Mana Core, it's the same as with the spiders. It allows my golems to store and regenerate more mana when within my boundaries. Well, judging by these upgrades, these owl units are specialists in intelligence and scouting operations. Whereas my spiders seem to be something like armored maintenance units. Still, it's going to cost me a total of 150 mana to purchase all three.

That's a bit of a pain, but I'm glad I chose to do this before spawning any. So, it's back to playing the waiting game as I regenerate my mana and then spend it again. Honestly, I'm not too sure how much time passes doing this. I have five nodes now which produce a total of fifty mana every ten minutes. So, thirty minutes then? That's not as bad as it feels. Still, it takes another twenty minutes to gather the mana for the control unit. Or Boss Monster as Eraina's group would call it.

"All right, that should do it."

I watch as the new unit takes form and walks out of the spawner. It's not like I needed to see how it looks. It's just interesting to see it in the flesh, so to speak. I frown as I think about how I'm going to test these new units out once I spawn the others. Maybe I'll try to have them wander around just outside my territory a bit and see what they can discover.

Ah, right, a name. I think I'll call this golden golem Athena. That was the name of a goddess from an ancient civilization even for me. Hmm, my Avatar's charge is running low again. Back to the pod! I sigh heavily as I sit in it and feel the mana flowing into my Avatar.

It takes a bit of time to save up another 100 mana, but I don't regret spending it for ten Owl Golem units. I guess that goes to show how much more valuable the boss versions are compared to the minions. A daring thought strikes me as I analyze the new units popping out of the spawner.

Not too long has passed since Eraina's group left my territory. It should take a couple of days at least for them to reach town. Shouldn't my owls be able to catch up and spy on them? Well, that's assuming their mana cores can keep them powered long enough. Besides, they'll have to spread out and find them first. It seems I overlooked asking them what direction the town was in.

Either that or Eraina was quite masterful at deflecting me away from following that train of thought. Hmm, if I can at least find them I'll be able to guess what direction the town is in. That way I'll be able to watch for any movement from that direction in case I get exposed.

I mentally sigh as I send Athena my first orders. I want Eraina's group found, but my owls need to make sure to reserve enough mana to make it back. I get a sense of seriousness through my bond with Athena as she acknowledges my order. Huh. Why did I start thinking of Athena as a female? Perhaps it's because of her name.

Through my dungeon body's senses, I watch Athena take flight, leading ten units behind her. I follow her all the way to the edge of my territory before activating the reconnaissance link as they cross the invisible barrier. Ugh, it seems like using this spends my mana, but it's pretty cool for my vision to split into eleven different views while being aware of everything happening in each one without missing anything.

Still, it's pretty disorientating. I urge them to look at anything that catches my interest as they fly through the remainder of the ruins outside of my current reach. They're a mess. Time hasn't been too kind to them, which makes me wonder why my current territory is in much better condition. The only thing I can think of is that the mana of my core was enough to protect the interior from the effects of time.

Hmm, there are some old buildings, but it doesn't look like there is any activity left. In fact, most of the ruins appear to be empty. That's strange. I feel like these ruins should be full of items and tools. Even if all the people disappeared long ago. My thoughts are interrupted as Athena reaches the edge of the ruins.

She flies onwards into rough caverns with tunnel systems leading all over the place. However, I can feel the wind flowing over her through our connection, which gives away which path to take to reach the surface. It seems the mana drain isn't as rough on my owls as it was on my Avatar. Which, I suppose, is a good thing. Even if I am a bit jealous.

It doesn't take long for her to navigate her way through using the wind. Before long, I can see sunlight shining at the end of the tunnel. I hold my breath as my owls escape the darkness and soar into the sky. Beautiful!

From here, I can see a lake extending as far as the eye can see. It's massive! Well, I mean I can only see a small section of it from here, but it looks like the area is huge. I sense Athena giving her minions the order to spread out and search for any signs of Eraina's group. A mental grin spreads across my face as I imagine her reaction. I bet she'll be surprised if she manages to spot my owls!